Something is not right somewhere between the Department of Interior and Local Government and local government units, so much so that it has been noted that neither the LGUs nor the local police force heed the chief of the DILG, Jesse Robredo, and appear to ignore him completely.
But aren’t  local governments under the control and supervision of the Interior Secretary?
If one goes by the what Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan has been saying on the issue of the Jordanian journalist Baker Atyani, it does appear that he refuses to heed Robredo to the point of refusing to launch a search and rescue operations to free the kidnapped journalist and his two Filipino crew from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).
Robredo has already confirmed — after weeks of  taking the Tan line that Atyani and his crew have not been kidnapped and that they have been freely traveling from camp to rebel camp while claiming Atyani is an al-Queda conduit set to face criminal raps and jail — that Atyani and the two Filipinos are captives of the ASG.
Despite his confirmation — and the confirmation of the Jordanian foreign ministry over a week ago that Atyani has been kidnapped by the ASG, Sakur Tan and his police and military have rejected these confirmations of a kidnap, insisting that the three continue to be moving freely; that they know where Atyani is at, and that Tan will not launch any search and rescue operations for the Jordanian journalist, insisting too that todate, there has been no communication between Atyani and his network or family, and no communication between the two Filipinos and their families. Neither has there been any negotations going on, Tan continues to state.
What really is going on, considering the fact that Robredo, in a TV interview Tuesday, finally admitted that Atyani and his crew have been kidnapped; that one Filipino crew member had already spoken to his wife, telling her about their being held by the ASG and that negotations are ongoing, yet the Sulu governor not only contradicts Robredo but also refuses to budge from his position of not launching any rescue, since, as he claimed, Sulu’s peace and order situation would be compromised.
How then can Robredo move to rescue Atyani when not only the Sulu governor but also the Sulu police and military won’t move a finger to rescue the kidnapped victims, despite their DILG chief already confirming that not only are Atyani and his crew kidnapped but also that  negotations for their freedom are already ongoing?
In other countries, when the subaltern does not follow the orders of his chief, that’s called insubordination and Robredo can certainly move to charge Tan administratively.
So why is Robredo not moving?
By not giving Tan the order to toe the line, Robredo is merely telegraphing the message to all local government units that they can ignore him and his orders, which makes Robredo a very ineffective and useless DILG chief.
It can be argued of course that the reason Robredo isn’t ordering Sakur Tan to do anything is that Robredo has a different team of negotiators, and is working, or coordinating with the Jordanian government authorities to free Atyani and his Fiipino crew, which means ransom is ready to be paid.
At the same time, however, there must also be something very wrong with Sakur Tan and the police and military, for them to keep on insisting that Atyani has not been kidnapped by the ASG and that there has been no indication they have been kidnapped, since Robredo says they are being held forcibly by their captors.
What it looks like is that one hand does not know what the other is doing, or both are keeping each other in the dark on the Atyani kidnap. Why is the big question that should be answered by both.